Fathers Without Wives
by blue weekends
Summary: Fatherhood is perplexing, as Qrow and Taiyang discover from the challenges of raising two little girls without their mothers.


Qrow remembered visiting on the day Raven left her daughter. Many a time before he teased her about discovering her nurturing nature when he found her dusting the porch with a broom or standing at the kitchen window over the sink. He confessed he had never thought she would have it in her. Many a time she retorted that if he was surprised, he must have not have known her very well.

"Congratulations," he had said airily to Taiyang as his brother-in-law came through the door one time. "You have done what no man on this earth and beneath this sky could not. You have made a housewife out of my sister."

The chagrin of his sister and the sheepishness of her husband had been priceless to behold.

But in the morning before the night she left, Raven had no retort to give. She just gave him an odd look and said that this is the longest time she ever remembered staying in one place. "Do you know, it has been, what, ten, maybe twelve years since we left the tribe?" She asked aloud.

"We all have to put roots down someday," Qrow heard himself say.

Raven didn't let him off easy. "Oh? And when will you put down your roots?" She asked, and Qrow had no answer to give.

When Raven left, Taiyang tried to go find her. It took Qrow to bring him to his senses. "Yang needs her father more than ever now," he insisted. "I'll go."

It wasn't hard. She talked of the tribe, and while he had no doubt she could hide from him, the tribe was another matter entirely. Finding the tribe would lead Qrow to his sister.

He found her wearing the bones of the Grimm and drinking blood fresh from the kill.

He found out she had challenged the leader of their tribe and slew him before the others.

He found out his sister was worshipped as some demon priestess.

He found out that she introduced new traditions. She had ordered that babies found misshapen or defective in some way were to be thrown off a cliff, and elders were to be cast into the wilderness to fend for themselves.

The black eye Taiyang gave Qrow when he returned home empty-handed and drunk and lied that she got away was preferable to telling the truth. He took it – he didn't use his Aura to stop it – and remembered lying there on the floor of the living room with his face still smarting from the punch as Taiyang stomped outside to the garage to get his motorbike.

When he sat up to the sound of Taiyang driving off and saw Yang watching him from the top of the stairs, two years old and scared out of her wits, Qrow decided that he would rather fight all the Grimm in the region then try to hide, let alone explain to the little girl in the simplest terms the things that went on between grown-ups.

He could not have done it without Summer Rose. She just appeared one day out of the blue, their fearless leader looking to make sure they all made it out in one piece once more, this time through parenthood.

"No one called," she explained as she met him at Taiyang's door. "Thought I drop by." She took the news about Raven and Taiyang in stride. When she met Yang, it was like one child meeting another bigger child. She picked up Yang and proclaimed that she was the cutest thing she had ever seen through all of Remnant.

Qrow decided right then and there that the Huntress was a national treasure.

He called Beacon and told Ozpin they were both taking some time off. "It's Raven," Qrow explained without going into specifics. "Tai's looking for her and someone needs to stay and watch Yang in the meantime."

"I understand." There was a long pause on the other side of the line. "Have you seen your sister?" Ozpin asked. "Was she with the tribe?"

Qrow closed his eyes and braced his arm against the wall and his hand against his forehead. "Yes."

"Is there a chance that she will return?"

"I do not think so."

"It is a terrible thing to find yourself having to choose between your wife and daughters," Ozpin mused. "A terrible thing indeed."

"Sir?"

"Nothing. Just prattling to myself. You need not worry about your next mission. I will have it reassigned. And Qrow?"

"Yes?"

"A word of advice. A wise man once said: 'Nothing is dearer than a daughter to a father growing old.' I hope you will never need it. Let me know if there is anything I can do."

It was rough at the beginning. The changing of nappies was a learning experience for both Summer and Qrow. The late-night runs to the store for milk and baby powder alone gave Qrow an existentialist crisis. But both of them bore it well.

The first reminder to Qrow about his condition came when he gave Yang a piggybank one time only for her to fall off and land on her head.

Bad luck followed him all around. Maybe it was him being around which was why Raven wasn't anymore.

He and Summer had taken Yang to the doctor immediately for a scan, afraid of a fracture and worse. "Are you the parents?" The receptionist asked, looking between the two brunettes with the blonde child cradling her head.

"No," Qrow said quickly.

"Yes," Summer answered.

They looked at each other and back to the receptionist who raised an eyebrow as Summer flushed. "I am her uncle," Qrow assented. "We're watching over her for the time being."

They both breathed a sigh of relief when they were told that Yang only had a bruise to show for her accident.

Love was a tricky thing. Sometimes you fall into it and hit rock bottom when it failed to catch you. Then those are the times when it picked you up and swung you around until you're light-headed and giddy. Then there are the times when neither of those things happens. It would be an ordinary day filled with ordinary happenstance, and the epiphany leaves you just a little awestruck. You look and look again, and there it was, always there within plain sight.

Qrow never saw himself as one for the domestic life, with all its picketed fences and morning walks with a baby in a pram. He told himself he was only taking care of Yang because she was his niece. He told himself that Summer was helping because she was a friend of the family.

This was the lie he believed to avoid the questions that would arise if he faced the truth.

But the truth came hard with a good right hook when Qrow woke up one morning on the couch to find Yang pulling at his sleeve and asking for his help in waking Summer up. Against his better judgement, he went with her together and they went to the guest room to pull the curtains and yell for Summer to get up.

"Go on, scat. Both of you!" Summer shouted with mock anger as she turned and threw her pillow over her head as Qrow hammered a fist loudly against the wall. "It's too early for this," she protested as Yang rained tiny fists over her pillow. They hit like hammers. "Did you brush your teeth, Yang?"

Yang paused in her assault on the upholstery. "Nope."

Summer raised her head and leveled a look at Qrow. "Did you?"

Qrow raised his hands in supplication. "I just got up."

"Well here's an idea. How about you make sure that Yang here stick to good dental hygiene and get the pot brewing. I'll be right down in a few minutes."

Qrow shook his head in dismay and herded Yang out and to the bathroom where she stood on a stool and over the sink. The girl brushed her teeth too hard. All the toothbrushes she used ended up with their bristles sticking out like Summer's bed hair. "You're going to make your gums bleed if you keep doing that," he warned Yang before he hurriedly headed off back downstairs. "Gently now. You have all the time in the world."

When the pot was ready and Qrow had two mugs filled to go, he heard Summer pad downstairs and turned around to hand her one as she entered the kitchen. Summer murmured her thanks as she rubbed her eyes, and the two of them stood there for a while, leaning back against the kitchen bench. "Do you know when Tai will be back?" She asked

"Afraid not."

Summer nodded and pretended to study her coffee. She waved her mug at the room and much more. "I know I sound a little selfish, but I don't mind this. I could almost get used to it. Don't you agree?"

Qrow looked around, not picking up on what Summer was suggesting, but giving her the answer she wanted to hear. "Yeah," he muttered. "I really could."

He did not see the smile Summer sent his way. They both heard Yang yelp and hurried upstairs.

She had broken the tap. Pulled the spigot right off.

"Girl's going to grow up to be something," Summer mused under her breath as Qrow set his mug down and tried to stem the waterspout. "Going to be built like a brick shithouse."

Despite himself, Qrow barked out loud in laughter.


End file.
